Fireproof your Christmas tree

Spotted on the Snopes messageboards: instructions on how to fireproof your Christmas tree. Say the authors of the instructions, "traditionally we take a dead tree not properly prepared, set it in our homes and wrap it with electric wires. What an invitation for a fire!" Hmm, I thought, making sense so far... Sounds interesting. So I did a few searches and found that this "recipe" is up on a bunch of other websites. Like this one, for instance.

Here's what you do:
1) Fill a two gallon bucket with hot water to within one inch of the top.
2) Add the following ingredients: two cups Karo syrup, two ounces of liquid chlorine bleach, two pinches of Epsom salt, half a teaspoon of Borax, and one teaspoon of chelated iron (found at gardening supply stores). Stir the mixture thoroughly.
3) Saw at least an inch off the base of the tree and stand it in the bucket of solution. At which point, I'm guessing, the bucket totally overflows, spilling bleachy syrup goop all over the floor, so probably best to do this outside! Leave for twenty-four hours.
4) Set your tree up in its stand as usual and fill the well with some of the solution. Top up as necessary.

Frankly, I'm dubious. Yet curious, too. Does it work? I mean, I can't imagine it being much help in stopping the tree from burning. Fact of nature: when flame meets needle, burning happens, right? But, you know, testing it out would make a great science experiment!

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